Development and Psychometric Testing of the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory: An Observational Study Among Informal Caregivers of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Purpose The purpose of the study was to develop and psychometrically test the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory (CC-SCODI), a new tool for assessing caregiver contribution to self-care in diabetes, among informal caregivers of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods A multicenter cross-sectional observational study was conducted. A total of 251 patients with T2DM and their informal caregivers were included. The CC-SCODI measures the caregiver contribution to patients’ self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring, and self-care management. It also assesses the caregiver self-efficacy in contributing to patient self-care. To evaluate dimensionality, a confirmative factor analysis was conducted. To evaluate reliability, the multidimensional model-based reliability index was estimated. To assess construct validity, associations between caregiver contribution to self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management and caregiver self-efficacy, caregiver burden, and dyadic care type were tested. Results A multidimensional structure emerged for caregiver contribution to self-care maintenance and monitoring scales, and a unidimensional structure emerged for caregiver contribution to self-care management and caregiver self-efficacy scales. All the reliability indices were higher than 0.70. Significant associations were found between caregiver contribution to self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management and caregiver self-efficacy, caregiver burden, and dyadic care type. Conclusions The CC-SCODI is suggested to be valid and reliable for assessing caregiver contribution to self-care in caregivers of patients with T2DM.